The increasing number of financial and personal transactions being performed on local or remote computing platforms has given impetus for the establishment of “trusted” or “secured” computing environments. The problem these environments try to solve is that of loss of privacy, or data being corrupted or abused. Users do not want their private data made public. They also do not want their data altered or used in inappropriate transactions. Examples of these include unintentional release of medical records or electronic theft of funds from an on-line bank or other depository. Similarly, content providers seek to protect digital content (for example, music, other audio, video, or other types of data in general) from being copied without authorization.
One solution is a trusted system that may utilize a complete closed set of trusted software. This method is relatively simple to implement, but has the disadvantage of not allowing the simultaneous use of common, commercially available operating system and application software. This disadvantage limits the acceptance of such a trusted system. Therefore, additional and/or different mechanisms to support trusted computing environments are desirable.
All registered trademarks used herein are the property of the respective owners of said trademarks. Use of the trademarks herein may provide examples of components that may be used.